Method 1: To point your entire domain (www.example.com) to Cargo, use the A Record method. Existing email accounts will remain functional, but this method causes FTP to be disassociated from your domain name.

Method 2: To point a subdomain (blog.example.com) to Cargo, use either the CNAME or the A Record method. This allows email and FTP to remain associated with your domain.

(Of course you will need to own a domain first — you can register one via a service like iWantMyName. Also make sure your registrar or host allows you to modify the DNS settings of your domain. If you already have hosting set up for your domain, you'll need to modify your DNS settings through your host, not your registrar. For example, if you purchased a domain from iWantMyName and you have a website hosted by Dreamhost, you would change your DNS settings from your Dreamhost control panel, not from iWantMyName.)

Method 1:

Point your entire domain (www.example.com) to Cargo

Pointing your personal domain to Cargo requires you to modify your website's existing A Record. Depending on where you modify the DNS settings, you may need to add a record, or modify the A Record. In both cases you will need to point to Cargo's IP address: 173.203.204.123

You must create a record for with, and without, "www". For instance, "www.example.com" and "example.com" are two different addresses and they both need to be pointed to Cargo in order to work.

For "example.com", the host name might be "@" or "example.com" or simply left blank.

For "www.example.com" the host name might be "www" or "www.example.com"

Dreamhost users, you will need to set your domain to use DNS hosting before this change can be made. Read more about this on the Dreamhost Wiki.

Ensure that once Cargo's IP address is entered, there are no additional A records. Having multiple A records (with other IP addresses) will cause your domain to bounce back and forth from Cargo and your host.

Once you've added the A record, wait about 30 minutes. Then add your domain to your /admin -> Settings -> Use a personal domain name to associate your domain with your Cargo website

Method 2:

Point a subdomain (blog.example.com) to Cargo

To create a subdomain for your website (blog.example.com), you'll need to create an A Record for this subdomain and point it to 173.203.204.123, or modify the domain's CNAME record (see example below). To do this you will need to find the DNS settings with your registrar and add a new CNAME record.

Create a new alias name. This is the name you want for your subdomain.

Email: if you already have an email address set up with your host, it should continue to be functional and no settings will change as long as your hosting account remains active. You can also choose to have Google host your domain's email. Read this post on how to set up your email with Google.

FTP: If you already have an FTP account with your current host, this will remain active. If you are creating a subdomain to point to Cargo, nothing will change . If you are pointing your entire domain to Cargo, your FTP account will change: it will no longer be associated with your domain. You will need to find the IP address for your current hosting account to access the FTP. Cargo does not provide an FTP account.

DNS settings: not every host, nor every registrar, allows you to modify your DNS settings. If you cannot locate these settings, chances are fairly high that your host/registrar will not allow modification. You can try calling them or create a support ticket in order to accomplish this.

Support: will be provided via this post only. Modifying your DNS settings can seriously alter your domain. Cargo will provide as much support as possible, but we are not responsible for lost files/email/etc.

Multiple A records: If you have multiple A records, containing multiple IP addresses, your domain will not always point to Cargo. Ensure that once you've created your new A records that these are the ONLY A records associated with your domain. Those who use the CNAME method can disregard this note.

Associate your domain: Once your domain is properly pointing to Cargo, you will see a message reading "domain awaiting provisioning". You now need to associate your domain with your Cargo website by adding it in your /admin → Settings → Use a personal domain name. Your domain should be activated within a few hours, though it usually happens much faster then that.

Dreamhost users: Dreamhost retains a primary A record on the domain. This means that their IP address will always be associated with the account, and your domain can never properly forward to Cargo. The only way to stop this from happening is to remove the domain from hosting in the Dreamhost control panel. We are told that this still retains email addresses but it would remove all files, and file access, from this domain. You can remove hosting and retain email from your Dreamhost control panel and pressing "Delete" from the "Web hosting" column.